Who Prays For Me?

 I received a card from a local parish yesterday, and opened it in shock.  A mass was being offered for me --- and I am not dead, yet.  I have had people pray for me, and been included in group intentions or masses, like: ”for all our sponsors and donors”, but never a mass specifically offered for me.  Besides the shock, there was a sadness, for I have been avoiding indoor Sunday masses due to the Covid risk.  I probably wouldn’t attend that mass being offered for me, but then I remembered that this particular parish is having parking lot masses on Sundays through the end of October, and the mass will be offered on the last Sunday of October.  So, I can attend!!

God is so good.

I titled this blog posting “Who Prays For Me?” because I wanted YOU to know YOU are prayed for, even as I will be prayed for in a couple of weeks.  Every day, many times a day, I offer my prayers, my sufferings, for you, often naming you.  I always pray for God’s Mercy on this country and this election, but I also pray for all those people who God has put in my life, who cross my path, like YOU.  There is a reason our paths have crossed.  I pray His Will, His Mercy, be done for you.

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I attended a retreat these last three days, virtually, on-line.  It was put on at my parish in Ann Arbor by the JPII Healing Center.  The four talks were very different, in that much was acted out, and many personal examples used to stress a point.  Inner brokenness was the healing sought, starting with establishing a relationship with God the Father.  He started everything, for a reason.  I don’t think anyone could listen to those talks and not be personally touched by the personal sufferings of the speakers, and/or God’s personal reaching out to them.  Listening in the audience, I am sure God touched many of their sufferings.

We are going through many sufferings as a country, and world, but how we react to those sufferings is unique to our personal sufferings, which made us who we are.  Whether inflected in our childhood or adult life, by a parent, sibling or acquaintance, --- or ourselves --- we have had sufferings we can never forget, or never bring to the surface to remember.  They affect us and those around us.

The retreat talks noted that “Forgiveness is the foundation of all healing”.  The talks focused on encountering God the Father, whose love is within us.  We are made in His Image.  His love is exhibited in mercy.  His Son died to forgive us.  We need to find that mercy, so we too can forgive.

It was a very good retreat.  I hope they will make those talks available for purchase by others.  It is worth the money, to find ways to know God better.